Dream
Dream is the plane where all dreams come from, the place where the sleeping mind drifts in order to create that which is most fantastic. Getting to the plane is as easy as falling asleep, however the visits there are brief in this way and it is almost impossible to move into the dreams of others. However, it is possible to transport oneself into the plane, where they are capable of exploring the amorphous plane and searching through dreams. This has become a lucrative form of theft for some- calling themselves thought-seizers. Still others use the plane to implant ideas into the dreams of others, planting seeds of their own desires within others. These are the minority, for most who travel the plane are content with exploring and creating their own dreams. Underneath and outside of the basic land of dream there is a wide land of mystery, and some dark secrets. Abilities Those who are especially attuned to the plane can become proficient with the use of Dream Tools, which are actually a set of psionic abilities that facilitate easier movement through the plane. Those who are talented with their Dream Tools can shape their own Dreamscapes with ease, and can cast both Dream and Fabricate when inside the plane. Denizens of Dream In addition to the ordinary dreaming folks and outsiders most are accustomed to there are many beings native to the plane of Dream. Most beings from this plane carry the modifier of 'Dream Creature'. Some of those that can leave lose the template when they do so. * Goatmen of Leng * Ghasts (awakened) * Ghouls (awakened) * Gugs * Lillends * Moon-beasts * Nightgaunts * Ultharans * Wamps * Zoogs Locations The Sea The primary area people access within Dream is called The Sea and is a seemingly endless expanse of clouds, stars, and spheres known as Dreamscapes. These spheres are in actuality the dreams of individual people, and they are almost endless. A Dreamscape is like a pocket plane with its own specific properties. Items taken from dreams almost always disintegrate into clouds of dust shortly after being removed. The sea is not an altogether safe place, particularly for those who travel between dreams. Some spheres are very powerful, enough to pull in any minds nearby that are outside of the protection of another sphere. There are dark clouds that form on occasion known as Nightmare Zones. These can be exceptionally dangerous. The City The city is constantly full of people. Dreamers, visiting Outsiders, and plenty of physical visitors pass through, many of which seeking items in the Fools' Market. The market sells extraordinary items cheaply but most of these items have the hazard of disappearing if the one who dreamt them should ever wake. Many wizards have testing facilities in the city because the stakes of failure are so much lower than normal (or so they think). The city is also home to the Palace of the Dreaming Lord which was the throne of Morpheus before his disappearance. The palace itself is now the home to a sort of governing body of dreams in a council, a gathering of strange beings that claim authority in The City made up of the Marquis of Dreams, the King of Dreams, and the Archduchess of Dreams. The Riding There is a procession of fey (generally led by Queen Mab) that bring with them a moving platform of clouds. This platform is massive and carries upon it nine holds, each more fabulous than the last and each is led by a different Arch-fey, whose name and purpose is known only to the fey. This is where children are chosen and abducted as changelings and morphs, this is where people are spirited away in their sleep, and this is where the fey hunt the beasts of Dream that bring danger to the multiverse. The Dark Procession The Dark Procession is another conglomeration of fey led by the Queen of Nightmares, with the sole purpose of spreading nightmares and absorbing the pain they cause. They are pursued often by members of The Riding, and occasionally by Dendar, who feasts on nightmares as eagerly as they do. Carriages drawn by Nightmares are a sign of the procession's coming, and a sure thing to avoid at all costs. The Endless There was a girl who loved dream so much she never wanted to leave. Every time she slept she loved more and more. She dreamt of a forest, of fields, of all things beautiful and so, while her body aged and withered, she one day decided not to wake up. Her body died as an old woman, but in Dream she is still the same girl, wearing the same red cloak, skipping through the planes as she wishes, for in Dream she knows few equals. Many people have seen her in their dreams although they half remember it. Her realm is one of the largest and she is not hard to find for those who know where to look. The advanced age and immense size of her realm makes is particularly popular for beings of nightmare and monsters, which in turn caused her to craft her own dream guardians. While the Endless is a good place to enter Dream due to its relative stability, this can be a dangerous (yet reliable and therefore less dangerous) option. The Outlands Beyond the scope of ordinary Dream there are realms touched by the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, filled with equal amounts of terror and wonder. These realms are places of lost lore and forgotten cultures. The easiest way to reach the Outlands is by climbing an unusual staircase in an ordinary dream, and passing the judgement of the strange entities known as Nasht and Kaman-Tha. The West The West is entered by a cavern of flame and leads into a large open forest called The Enchanted Wood. The Wood is the home to the Zoogs, a race of small rat-faced fey that live here, making potent drinks from the sap of a haunted tree in the Wood's center. The tree was planted with a seed from Moon. Hidden somewhere in the forest is a trapdoor that leads to the top of the Tower of Koth and from there deep into the Underworld. There is an enchantment upon the passage that prevents Grugs from accessing it. Heading outside of the Wood one realizes that they are in actuality on an island, although there is no telling where the ocean West leads. Across the island of the West is the jungle city of Hlanith at the coast, the port of Dylath-Leen, the desert city of Ilarnek where traders come, the town of Ulthar which is inhabited almost exclusively by cats, and the Lands of Mnar where grey etched stones litter the land and the ruins of Sarnath rise from the grey waste. The waste and ruins are guarded by the Shantak, birds of elephantine proportions with the heads of horses. The East The East is where one finds the realm of Celephais, a kingdom created by a powerful and ancient dreamer, and the barrier between Dream and the Forbidden Lands. The North The North is the city of Sarkomand and the passage to the Plateau of Leng, a terrifying place inhabited by man-eating spiders with human teeth, cults of corpse-eating cannibals, and hideous goatmen. The South The South gives way to an open ocean filled with endless islands called the Fantastic Realms. The most common destination adventurers actually make it to is the Isle of Oriab, which is home to Baharna, a major seaport. The citizens of Baharna use zebras to get around and Baharna is marked by two gigantic lighthouses that shine like binary stars in relation to one another. In the center of Oriab is the dormant volcano Ngranek, which the natives fear to climb because of nightgaunts. Opposite of Baharna is the lake of Yath, which stands between a small village and the ruins of another, long-forgotten city. The ruins are avoided because of the Wamps, blood-sucking humanoids that infest the ruins and come out at night. A large underground canal runs beneath Baharna from Yath. The Underworld Somewhere underneath the ordinary plane of Dream is the Underworld, which is the homeland of the Nightgaunts that inhabit the rest of the plane. The Nightgaunts are guardians of the Underworld and while they can be exceptionally dangerous, they keep beings from getting in or out. The places they congregate in Dream are entrances to the Underworld. The cycle of life in the Underworld is one of rot, decay, and cannibalism. The Gug feast on the Ghouls and vice versa, forever. On one side of the Underworld is the Gug city, where they rot for eternity as punishment for crimes long forgotten. The cityscape is made up of soaring towers that touch the sky, including the Tower of Koth which contains the exit into the Enchanted Wood which Gug are unable to ever enter. Next to the Gug city is their cemetary, dotted with grim stone monoliths and littered with ghouls that devour the corpses of Gug. Then is the entrance to the Vaults of Zin, an endless catacomb full of misery and corpses (a favorite of Gug and Ghast alike). Also in the Underworld are the terrifying mountains known as the Peaks of Thok which flank the Vale of Pnak, the place where the bones of the ghouls' feasts are thrown and corpses litter. The ghouls overlook the Vale from the Crag of the Ghouls (a small gap in the Peaks of Thok where they reside, and where there is an entrance to the palace of Doresain). The Vale has a slight and eerie green light, and is where nightgaunts often drag victims to die. The vale is inhabited by giant wurms called Dhole. A realm called the Great Abyss is present in the Underworld, directly beneath the city of Sarkomand but it is unknown how and why it came to be abandoned. It was once the realm of Nuada who is said to have been the servitor for all of Dream, but how he came to create this dark place and why is unknown. The entrance to the realm of Nuada from Sarkomand is guarded by two gargantuan Sphinx. Moon The final and most confusing realm of Dream is Moon, which is inhabited exclusively by the Moon-beasts. In Moon is the series of settlements led by the beasts in their confusing patterns of endless maze-like architecture and in the center of their settlement which covers all of Moon, is the temple of Kadath, which is home to gods that have been enslaved by Nyarlathotep known as the Great Ones. Category:Planes